I haven't made fun of pinup artist Elvgren yet, that artist who was so good he was bad. As I have explained before, this blog is not about glamour, or to be more correct, fake glamour... and if I EVER put anything on here which would be appropriate on a Coca-Cola bottle, (or a Serta mattress, for gawd's sake) please slap me awake. Elvgren was master of the smiling "Good Girl Art" pinup, but bad art.
Brown and Bigelow licensed the Elvgren Letter Opener here. Elvgren SCULPTS! The plastic leggy lady was also manufactured in brass. I guess she is holding the globe in her hands, but B&B would print anything you wanted on there, in this case BLOOM photography in Chicago, who I am going to guess was interested in the serving the amateur camera club market. You know...the guys who couldn't paint, but would dream of an Elvgren model while shopping for a new lens? The letter opener was an inventory item for two years, from 1958 to 1960. As you can see, she has a name "Ellen the Eye Opener" and she is there when "there is a service to perform."
I am afraid mine does not have the original packaging, which was just inoffensive enough...it also came in a special Christmas version. It isn't that I don't like Elvgren because they are too beautiful...I don't like them because they are too EASY. Hell, you can't avoid them, and he's been dead over 30 years. Piles of the prints, and I mean PILES of them, appear at flea markets and antique shows. Maybe I would feel different about the work if I ever saw an actual painting...I mean, he could render...but the gloss, glitz, idealized and perfect "risque" element just leaves me cold.
I love women, and I don't see too many with, well...teeth as white as the ones in his paintings, you know what I mean? (and yes, Elvgren did advertise toothpaste) At least Driben could be hot and filthy if he wanted to. Elvgren women aren't sexy in the least. They are exactly as sexy as the product they are advertising...and that isn't sexy at all. Elvgren did beer ads...and if beer was sexy, they wouldn't have to sexy up the beer ad with sex.
I just entered "ELVGREN" into my favorite local search engine and although there were easily 300 paintings, not a one had a cloud or a raindrop. Someone should have told Elvgren women are lovely when it rains too.
Elvgren was a commercial artist, not a fine artist. If Norman Rockwell's women wore stockings and their skirts hiked up (or they "caught" it on a fence while climbing towards you with a picnic basket and black stockings "oops") you could hardly tell them apart. Good is good, but it sure is boring.
His original paintings are approaching the $200,000 mark at auction, so I am afraid my letter opener, which I can only use now for bills, will be the only one I ever own.
Elvgren letter opener, circa 1958 "Ellen the Eye Opener" collection Victor Minx
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